Guwahati, Aug. 10: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and customs sleuths seized skins and bones of two leopards, including a clouded leopard, in a joint operation last night.

Customs superintendent M. Sarania said the estimated value of the animal parts was Rs 13 lakh in the grey market. He said the skin of the clouded leopard was 6.6 feet in length while the one of the leopard was 6-feet long. "Total weight of the bones, including skulls, and claws is 3.67kg," he added.

The full-grown leopards were believed to have been killed along the Assam-Meghalaya border in Kamrup district.

Sarania said Ranjan Rabha, 31, and Subal Rabha, 30, were arrested in connection with the seizure and a case has been registered against them under relevant sections of the Customs Act and Wildlife Protection Act. If convicted, they could face imprisonment up to seven years.

He said the two accused were looking for buyers to sell the leopard parts. On receiving information, the bureau officials along with customs sleuths laid a trap by planting a decoy customer, who called them to Gorchuk here last night with the animal parts where they were arrested.

The duo, who were produced in court today and remanded in judicial custody, hail from Chaygaon in Kamrup district. They confessed that a person from Meghalaya had recently given them the skins and bones at Chandubi in Kamrup district near the Assam-Meghalaya border to sell them for Rs 13 lakh.

The clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa) and leopard (Panthera pardus) are Schedule I animals under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which are accorded the highest protection status in India. In India, clouded leopards are mostly found in the Northeast.

According to the IUCN Red List, both the leopard and the clouded leopard are classified under vulnerable status. A vulnerable species is one which has been categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnerability is mainly caused by habitat loss or destruction of the home of the species.

"In April we seized pangolin scales from Chaygaon. Smuggling of wildlife items and forest products is rampant in areas along the Assam-Meghalaya border in Kamrup and adjoining districts. Guwahati has become a transit hub for these items to Myanmar and China through Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland," a Bureau official told The Telegraph.

"Poaching and smuggling of animal parts in the Northeast is fuelled by high demand in China for making traditional Chinese medicines," he said.

He said the Bureau apprehended two persons yesterday with a tokay gecko - a lizard that is in great demand in China for its reported medicinal value - at Bogoribari in Dhubri district.

"The accused, Md Samar Ali, 26, and Md Anwar Ali Seikh, 38, hailing from Gauripur in Dhubri, had brought the gecko from Garo hills in Meghalaya to sell it for Rs 5 lakh," he said.

Bibhab Talukdar, secretary general of wildlife NGO Aaranyak, said since Guwahati has become a transit hub, it is now more important for the enforcement agencies to monitor wildlife smuggling activities.